1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a resolution conversion system which, for example, permits display of data in a different resolution than that stored in a memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently data processing apparatus such as personal computers utilize a high resolution data storage for image display, for instance 900 by 1152 pixels. In order to display the image data stored in memory on a display such as a liquid crystal display, plasma display, etc., it is usual to use a display with the same resolution as that of the memory. However, when the memory is large enough to permit high-resolution storage of image data, a display is generally chosen to have a comparable high-resolution even though such a high resolution display may not be needed. Thus the cost of the system becomes quite expensive.
To reduce cost when high-resolution is not required, a display with low-resolution is employed. In such systems the contents in the high-resolution memory is converted to be suitable for use with a low-resolution display.
One known method of converting image data of high resolution into suitable low resolution for a display uses software image data processing.
Another method involves converting the image data in the high resolution memory into image data stored in another memory at a lower resolution.
However, in the first method mentioned above, if a suitable algorithm for the resolution conversion is used, the resolution conversion is achieved with high-quality but the time for converting is unacceptably long. In the second method, an additional memory is required which adds to the cost of the equipment, and additional time is required in converting the higher resolution data into the second memory of lower resolution.